I was hoping I could get some feedback from you. I haven't been physically active for a long time. I tried committing to an exercise routine at the beginning of the year, but it fizzled out and I gave up. But like I said in my introductory post, I've gotten to a place where I have to get my physical health completely handled.

My ultimate goal is to going into body sculpting. I'm not interested in competition or anything, it's a matter of the personal satisfaction of accomplishing a goal. AND the health benefits. That's priority number one. Nurtition wise I'm taking care of business, but since I'm starting fresh I wanted to know how best to get started.

My main focus for the moment is stamina, strenth and overall fitness. No point in trying my hand at body sculpting if I can't actually lift the weights, right? This is the routine that I tried my hand at at the beginning of the year:

Reverse Crunch, Regular Crunch, Oblique Crunch, Russian twist, Vacuum, Prone Superman, Pushups, One Armed Row - Elbow In, Seated Reverse Fly, External Rotation, Lateral Raise, Double Triceps Kickback, Chair Dip, Biceps Curl. Two sets of 12-15 for all exercises. Warm up is 10 minutes of cardio, and I do 1-3 minutes of cardio between each exercise for both sets. I run this routine in a circuit fashion.

Now at the beginning of the year I was able to do most of this, but this time round I could only do half and I felt lightheaded and nauseous. I've never experienced this before, so I thought that maybe I should tone down the routine to some steady cardio and 3-5 weight exercises so I can build up my stamina and strength. Oh, and I was giving myself a chance by not going all out this time so I could build myself up.

What would you guys say? Am I pushing too hard too soon for someone who led a pretty sedentry lifestyle so far?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and reply,

Andrew

P.S. I apologise to the moderators in advance if this post is in the wrong section. It seemed like this is the right place to put it.

Welcome welcome, I think you are off to a great start. I personally don't believe you can push yourself too hard unless you are endangering injuring yourself, typically that is more commonly done by exercising without proper form or technique not by pushing too hard. For more feedback from forum members try posting questions to their posts. Active members in the journals section of the forum would be a good place to do this.

If you are feeling lightheaded and nauseous then you are likely not getting nutrition close enough to your workouts or you are pushing to hard. My suggestion is to make sure you are eating something about an hour before you workout, it doesn't have to be a lot but something (toast with PB or almond butter is my standard). If you are doing that then I would scale back a little. The reality is that the feeling of nausea will make you dread working out and the mental barriers tend to be worse than the physical ones.

@ Vegan_Rossco: Hey mate. Yes, I'll keep a workout log, but I won't start a proper exercise regime until I'm done with Uni, 5 weeks time. I'll have about 4 months before I start my final class so I'll be able to focus soley on my exercise goals. I appreciate and look forward to your comments.

@Vegantri: Hey man. I've read in Men's Body Sculpting by Evans that if you want to lose weight exercise first thing in the morning on an empty stomach with nothing more than water. Is there any truth to this? On the day in question I had eatten - I worked out in the afternoon due to schedule changes - so I thought that maybe I'm pushing to hard after so long a period of inactivity. Of course, the workout regime I've posted above is the same one I was using at the beginning if the year and I didn't have any problems then. Maybe it was just that particular day.

Like I said though, I'll give this 100% in 5 weeks times so I can get through these final assessments with my sanity intact.

So, diet plays a much larger part in weight loss than exercise. So unless you have your diet in order you won't see much in the way of gains (or losses as it were) in you weight. Where exercise can help is by boosting your metabolism a bit but in doing this you are also going to want to eat more as well. I have heard the workout on an empty stomach right after waking up thing before and the theory is that overnight while you are sleeping your body starts to use fat as it primary supply of fuel and continues to do so when you start working out. There is certainly data that backs this up (as far as I know this is all around cardio and not resistance training) but you take a performance hit as well which will hit other fitness goals beyond weight.

So basically have good nutrition and do the exercises and let the body adapt naturally. That's pretty much what I had in mind but I wasn't sure if I should eat or not before. Thanks, that really cleared it up fo me.

Hey Andrew, I agree with the above posts. Your diet is so influential on how you feel, it took me by surprise! I decided to go Vegan a couple weeks ago and waited till now to goto the gym to see if I would continue too feel energised (I have been)

Its key to remember everyone is different, so figure out 3 or 4 core foods you eat everyday that make you feel good in my opinion and then supplement the rest of the day with a variety of other nutritious foods. At the moment I have Couscous, Cucumber, Carrots and Oats daily (woah mostly C's lol), and that works for me/My 2 cents

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